I have this extreme, knee-jerk negative reaction to white american faux anime shit. Whether it's in web comics (and it's mostly in web-comics. They're all copying each other) or in cartoons or just printed advertising.

I used to read a few web comics. But I stopped. Because they stopped holding my interest. After about a year on the same comic, instead of feeling more entrenched and committed to the story lines and characters I was only reading out of some sense of obligation. So I just don't read them anymore and it's no big deal. I don't miss them. I can't really remember the names of them beyond Goats, Sluggy Freelance, and the one that was actually very different... Bruno.

Anyway, I see that kind of drawing and animation style and I immediately discount anything going on in the piece. It might have some fantastic story line (though I really gaddamned doubt it) and I just won't be able to get through to that because I'm staring at some white guy's version of a 15 year old style of drawing that was popular in another country for 2 seconds but that's cutting-fucking-edge in the US.

It's just the extreme lack of creativity that gets me. Plus the fact that this style goes hand in hand with every ounce of Yiff I have ever seen. I see it and think "at some point, someone has drawn these characters with cat tails and ears fucking each other".

I like that people try to create things. I just wish more people took the time to develop their own styles instead of just cultivating this pervasive sameness.

It's about a bunch of animals that make references to pop culture and alcohol. Sometimes they swear and talk all street and stuff, other times they talk in that psuedo 'hip geek nerd' way that's really fucking grating.

generic nes tattoo-ers love it and will never stop hyping it on forums

I gave up after my brain surgery and i got hopelessly behind on everything. Even before then, i think i was down to Goats, Doonesbury, Boondocks, Bruno Daily Times, Get Fuzzy, and This Modern World.

As you know, i generally didn't care about the illustration...just the funny, texty goodness. If Sluggy, Goats, or whomever ripped off Bloom County, i didn't care as long as it made me giggle. Hence, i liked early Goats much more than what Jon's done the past few years, even though he can actually draw a little bit now. I think the strip jumped the shark as soon as i made an appearance.

My point? I don't think i have one. I just miss talking at you like the old days.

Doonesbury I was with sporatically here and there. Boondocks is good (if highly repetitive), I just never remember to read it. Bruno I fell out of when he took some sort of 6 month break after Bruno was in an accident and had a very long dream sequence - but I still think of it every time I see the word Cerberus. Get Fuzzy I was never really into and... maybe it's just me... but it seems that Tom Tomorrow decided to stop using humor a few years ago and now just repeats the same bitter "jokes". I can't blame him for it... the whole thing is horribly demoralizing. But still - quit the thing or make it worth reading.

Heh, but no one outside of *us* knew that it was you, Ken. And we were always the red headed step children that Jon literally moved away from in order to let us frolic in our own squalor on the G-F community.